NOTES

ΤΟ

VOLUME SECOND.

Note A. page 2.

I SHALL, in this note, add some particulars respecting the early practice of the reformed church of Scotland, under the following heads.

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Of Doctors.-The doctrine of the church of Scotland, and indeed of other reformed churches, on this head, has not been very uniform and decided. The first Book of discipline does not mention doctors, but it seems to take for granted what had been stated respecting the officers of the church in the Book of common order, where they are declared to be a fourth kind of ministers left to the church of Christ," although the English church at Geneva could not attain them. Knox's Liturgy, p. 14. Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 409, 410. In the second Book of discipline they are expressly mentioned as ane of the twa ordinar and perpetual functions that travel in the word," and "different from the pastor, not only in name, but in diversity of gifts." The doctor is to "assist the pastor in the government of the kirk, and concur with the elders his brethren in all assemblies," but not "to minister the sacraments or celebrate marriage." Dunlop, ii. 773, 774. The Book of common order and second Book of discipline agree in comprehending, under the name and office of a doctor," the order in schooles, colledges, and universities." Ut supra. The fact seems to be, that there never were any doctors in the church of Scotland, except the teachers of divinity in the universities. "Quamvis ecclesia nostra (says Calderwood) post primam reformationem quatuor agnoscat ministrorum genera, pastorum, doctorum, presbyterorum, et diaconorum: tamen doc

Some

tores alios nondum habuit quam scholarchas." De Regimine Ecclesia Scoticana Brevis Relatio, p, 1, 2. Anno 1618. writers have asserted, that it was as doctors that both Buchanan and Andrew Melville sat, and sometimes presided, in the church courts. The episcopalians having objected, that the church of Scotland admitted persons to act as moderators in her assemblies who were in no ecclesiastical office, and having instanced in the two persons above mentioned, Mr Baillie gives this answer: "Mr Melvil was a doctor of divinity, and so long as episcopal persecution permitted, did sit with great renowne in the prime chair we had of that faculty: George Buchanan had sometimes, as I have heard, been a preacher at St Andrews; after his long travells he was employed by our church and state to be a teacher to king James and his family: of his faithfulnesse in this charge he left, I believe, to the world good and satisfactory tokens: the eminency of this person was so great, that no society of men need be ashamed to have been moderated by his wisdome." Historical Vindica+ tion, p, 21, 22. The report which Mr Baillie had heard of Bu chanan having been a preacher probably originated from the di vinity lectures which Calderwood informs us he read with great applause in the university of St Andrews. Buchanan, and Mr Melvin were doctors of divinity," says Rutherfurd, Lex Rex, pref. p. 5, Lond. 1644.

Of Readers.-Those employed as readers appear to have often transgressed the bounds prescribed to them, and to have both solemnized marriage, and administered the sacraments. Different acts of Assembly were made to restrain these excesses. The General Assembly, October 1576, prohibited all readers from ministering "the holie sacrament of the Lord, except such as hes the word of exhortation." The Assembly which met in July 1579 inhibited them from celebrating marriage, unless they were found meet by "the commission, or synodal assembly," At length, in April 1581, the order was suppressed. “Anent readers: Forsamekle as in assemblies preceding, the office thereof was concludit to be no ordinar office in the kirk of God, and the admission of them suspendit to the present assemblie; the

kirk in ane voyce hes votit and concludit farder, that in na tymes coming any reider be admitted to the office of reider, be any having power within the kirk." Buik of the Universall Kirk, in loc.

Of Superintendents.-The church of Scotland did not consider superintendents as ordinary or permanent office-bearers in the church. They are not mentioned in the Book of common order, The first Book of discipline explicitly declares, that their appointment was a matter of temporary expedience, for the plantation of the church, and on account of the paucity of ministers. Its words are: "Because we have appointed a larger stipend to them that shall be superintendents then to the rest of the ministers, we have thought good to signifie to your honours such reasons as moved us to make difference betwixt teachers at this time.” And again: "We consider that if the ministers whom God hath endowed with his singular graces amongst us should be appointed to several places, there to make their continual residence, that then the greatest part of the realme should be destitute of all doctrine which should not onely be the occasion of great murmur, but also be dangerous to the salvation of many. And therefore we have thought it a thing most expedient at this time, that from the whole number of godly and learned men, now presently in this realm, be selected ten or twelve (for in so many provinces we have divided the whole) to whom charge and commandment should be given, to plant and erect kirkes, to set, order, and appoint ministers, as the former order prescribes, to the countries. that shall be appointed to their care where none are now." First and Second Books of Discipline, p. 35. printed anno 1621, Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 538, 539. Archbishop Spottiswood has not acted faithfully, if his History has been printed, in this place, exactly according to his manuscript. He has omitted the passages above quoted, and has comprehended the whole of the two paragraphs from which they are extracted in a short sentence of his own, which is far from being a full expression of the meaning of the compilers. History, p. 158. Lond. 1677. This is the more inexcusable as he says, that for "the clearing of many

questions which were afterwards agitated in the church," he "thought meet word by word to insert the same [the First Book of Discipline] that the reader may see what were the grounds laid down at first for the government of the church." Ibid. p. 152. He could not be ignorant that the grounds of the appointment of superintendents formed one of the principal questions agitated between him and his opponents. I have examined the copy of the First Book of Discipline, inserted in an old MS. copy of, Knox's Historie, and find that it exactly agrees with the quotations which I have made from the editions published in 1621, and by Dunlop. Dr Robertson has been misled by the archbishop. "On the first introduction of his system, (says he) Knox did not deem it expedient to depart altogether from the ancient form. Instead of bishops, he proposed to establish ten or twelve superintendents in different parts of the kingdom." As his authority for this statement, he refers solely to the mutilated account in Spottiswood. Hist. of Scotland, ii. 42, 43. Lond. 1809. Mr Laing, from an examination of the original documents, has given a more accurate account, and pronounced the appointment of superintendents a "temporary expedient." History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 17, 18. Lond. 1804.

The superintendents were elected and admitted in the same manner as other pastors. Knox, 263. They were equally subject to rebuke, suspension, and deposition, with the rest of the ministers of the church. In the examination of those who were admitted by them to the ministry, they were bound to associate with them the ministers of the neighbouring parishes. They could not exercise any spiritual jurisdiction without the consent of the provincial synods, over which they had no negative voice. They were accountable to the General Assembly for the whole of their conduct. The laborious task imposed upon them is what few bishops have ever submitted to. They must be preachers themselves;" they are charged to "remain in no place above twenty daies in their visitation, till they have passed through their whole bounds." They must thrice everie week preach at the least." When they return to their principal town of residence,

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